Inspiration for Leaders

Enjoy this news and reflection blog brought to you from the LHRIC Technology Leadership Institute!

Thursday, March 13, 2008

PM Keynote: School 2.0 Panel with Tim Magner

Tim has been the face of "School 2.0" in our region since the beginning of the year. He says much of the same that we have suspected for some time: technology has made connections personal, immediate, ubiquitous. The flow of information (media to home) has changed dramatically since the 1970s. The average American home has 26 "devices". Broadband penetration is reaching 50% in this country. We're seeing a flattening of ages of internet users.

But it's what we're doing with this connectivity that makes us fundamentally different. We look for things differently, and we look for different things; both products and services. We are connected in ways we haven't been before. Students surround themselves with an entire media landscape. They personalize the media they surround themselves with. These distinctions are age-specific and this is a global phenomena, not a monolith.

How does this shape student expectations about what it possible? About how they learn? About how that learning can be personalized, like the devices they command?

Is there truly more information outside of school than inside of school?

(Ed. note: there's going to be a chunk missing out of this post because of technical difficulties - the simulcast transmission outside the auditorium seems to be on the fritz. There's a ton of irony in here. )

Unfortunately it's well into the keynote and the group of us participating by simulcast are still subject to audio difficulties - Tim's voice is still coming through in waves. But we see that he's showing the audience the now familiar "School 2.0" visual that represents the interplay between school classrooms, buildings, neighborhoods and communities. The word "change" just came through loud and clear, as did the words "data" and "devices."